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Viewpoints RIP Richard Aoki
Viewpoints RIP Richard Aoki | RIP Richard Aoki |
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| Viewpoints | |
| Wednesday, 18 March 2009 | |
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Richard Aoki
November 20, 1938 - March 15, 2009 Revolution was commercialised, and had nothing to do with black
Crossovers in music, in clothes, in styles and sex became the norm, for what was coming next But we never stopped making babies They came out breathing the vapours, of an aborted revolution And all the failed capers, and the few who were escapers became stories Some of us wanted to forget So the sons of guns and the daughters of black order hopped into what was hip And skipped over the scattered remains Of a would-be revolution, turned into a game - abiodun oyewole Last weekend Richard Aoki passed away due to health complications. Many people would have never heard of him but, in the course of his long life, he has found himself at the centre of America’s troubled history.
His family was interned in Topaz relocation centre in Utah during World War II like many other Japanese Americans, Japanese Latinos and Japanese Canadians in the Americas. When the war ended he moved from the relocation centre to the ghettoes of West Oakland, and there immersed himself in the culture, music and politics of the Black slums. Despite the mistreatments his family was forced to endure during the war, Aoki served for eight years in the US army before returning to school in Oakland. Aoki had joined the army like many Blacks, Asians, Latinos and Natives in order to achieve better social mobility. He served with distinction and was offered commission, but refused since he did not consider himself officer material. After the war he went to, then quickly dropped out of, med school. After that Aoki travelled around the country working various menial jobs. These formative years made him understand the nature and the extent of American racism, and how it affects people of colour in the USA. Skills he learnt in the army would come to serve him well a few years on. A close friend of Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and David Hilliard, Aoki helped them draft the 10 Point Programme and became one of the founding member of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense; furthermore, he was the only Asian member who served at leadership level – he was promoted from Branch Captain to Field Marshall. He was instrumental in arming and drilling the Panthers. He made guns available to them and trained its members how to maintain and use those weapons. These weapons enabled the Panthers to patrol the police and protect the residents of the Oakland ghettoes from police brutality. Aoki also served as one of the leaders of the 1968 Third World Liberation Front Strike by students of UC Berkley which created the ethnic studies departments. Later he became coordinator of Asian American Studies at UC Berkley and a professor there. He remained deeply committed to the TWLF and acted as an advisor and negotiator for the 1999 strike for greater autonomy of the department. It can be hard for us today to appreciate how revolutionary the creation of ethnic studies departments were, when the study of social history is taken for granted in humanities and social sciences. Aoki is different to most others of the 60's nationalists in that he never gave up and was never defeated. Mumia was jailed, Assata Shakur is lingers in exile in Cuba, the Panther has been broken up and many of its members joined cultural nationalist organisations. In the USA today, an anti-Latino, anti-Asian and anti-Semitic Black Supremacist hate group goes around professing to the the “New” Panthers. Aoki remained optimistic, he maintained that the 60's were never lost, the job was merely not finished yet. He involved himself in community activism in the Bay area right up to his death and is remembered fondly by his ex-students and comrades in the Movement. In this Obama-era which has substitued representation for power and compromises for self-determination, he shines like a lighthouse into these dark ages. As the diaspora in the UK starts the flex our political muscle, it’s worth remembering that people manned the barricades all those years back so we can have the political discourses that we take for granted today. When everyone you meet seems to be a coffee shop revolutionary, it’s worth to be mindful of people and organisations like Richard Aoki, Yuri Kochiyama, Philip Vera Cruz, Angela Lee Boggs, I Wor Kuen, San Franscisco Red Guards and the horrible conditions that they fought to overturn – poverty, violence, bad health care, political marginalisation, racism – which still informs and shapes the life of so many in our British Asian communities today. RIP brother Aoki and thank you for all the inspiration you’ve given me in my life. I will be teaching my children about you; and through us, you will live forever. All power to the people. Olhos de Gato
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